The Story
OrganizerJaipur BookMark was created in 2014 from a recognition that the Jaipur Literature Festival, by then the world's largest free literary festival, was generating enormous energy around Indian writing but had no dedicated industry infrastructure alongside it. Publishers, agents, and translators were attending JLF as delegates and booksellers but had no structured professional forum for deal-making, rights discussions, or industry conversations.
Namita Gokhale, who co-founded JLF with William Dalrymple and Sanjoy Roy, conceived JBM as the industry arm of the same ecosystem. Running parallel to JLF at Diggi Palace gives JBM access to the world's largest literary gathering as its backdrop, an unusual resource for a professional publishing forum.
Norway's partnership since inception, through NORLA (Norwegian Literature Abroad) and the Norwegian Embassy, has given JBM a strong Scandinavian connection and has been instrumental in the translation rights programming that has become one of its signature contributions. The annual Rights Catalogue, which showcases Indian-language titles for international rights sale, is a concrete publishing industry output that most literary festivals do not produce.
By 2025, JBM had grown to represent over 10 countries, 27 languages, and 30+ publishers across 26 sessions. Its multilingual commitment, including dedicated Tamil publishing sessions and sessions conducted in Indian languages with simultaneous translation, reflects the JLF ecosystem's emphasis on India's linguistic plurality.
JBM is significant because it addresses a structural gap in India's literary ecosystem: the gap between the enormous richness of Indian-language writing and its limited international reach. The Rights Catalogue and the translation-focused programming are practical tools for getting Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and other Indian-language literature into international markets. At a time when Indian writing in translation is receiving more global attention than at any previous point, JBM's work is commercially and culturally consequential.
JBM is the primary mechanism through which Indian-language writing reaches international publishers and translators. Its Rights Catalogue is a practical publishing instrument. At a moment when Indian writing in translation is receiving unprecedented global attention, JBM's work is more timely than at any previous point.
Created South Asia's largest publishing industry conclave. Produced annual Rights Catalogues for Indian-language translation rights. Built a sustained Norway-India publishing partnership. Hosted 10+ countries and 27+ languages within a single annual event.
